Away for a bit

I'll be away for a smidgen as we're called to the bedside of my hubby's Opa, he suffered a heart attack combined with pnemonia this weekend and his condition is declining rapidly. Since his wife passed away last year, he has been looking forwards to someday rejoining her with our Father in Heaven, so he himself is not very saddened by this turn of health. Pray, though, for his children, who he refuses to close his eyes until he sees, who are en route as they both live out of province. Pray also for his grandchildren, for they will miss him, and as always when things like this happen, one realizes how much one has been lacking in the visiting department.

Boobie, mama!

It's been absolutely gorgeous outside, and by gorgeous I of course mean barely tolerable aside from the pure sunshine, with occasional bouts of warm. Regardless, this has directly resulted in me spending as much time outdoors as possible. Am I supermom, with the outdoorsy athleticism? No, no I am not. If there is a mess outside, it is daddy's problem. There are around four months or so of really decent weather here, and I like to pretty much live outdoors during this time. The other 2/3 of the year, I do 99% of the work around the house (my husband work hard manual labour and long days, so I don't begrudge most of this. I do get irritated when it starts to lean towards the 'I'm not your mother' zone.)

My sweet little DD is quite the trooper, despite her current lack of forehead (ouch) she is maintaining her usual attitude of cheer. In fact, she has taken to loading her dirty dishes into the dishwasher. 22 months, folks. I love this child. She is such a smartie. However, she also knows which key goes into the ignition and how to turn the key and then take the truck out of park. Intelligent toddlers can be a bit terrifying.

Did I say terrifying? I meant hilarious. She was quite proud of herself, dancing around declaring "BOOBIE! BOOBIE, MAMA!" Naturally, I clasped the bra (looping the clasp around to the front, the little bitty) so she wouldn't have to stop dancing every two seconds to put the bra back in place. At least she chose one of the cutest ones. Turkey.

Little model, too. She was making sure I got pictures from all angles. Then she danced around, giggling to herself and singing "Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle! Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle!" This kid is such a funny bunny. I love her to pieces.

PS, La Senza sale - 3 for $40 !!!

Oh, Blogger. You blogger, you.

I don't know about anyone else, but I have been having a few problems with blogger lately. It seems like the formatting on my posts goes all wonky. I hit edit like sixtybilliontimes because I am slightly anal-retentive and if all the pictures but one have a space behind I will sit there screaming kids-playground-insults at my computer monitor for half an hour while nothing I do to try fix it, short of actually jumping into the html, seems to fix it.
And then I fix it using the html and two days later the formatting is all gone. Like my toddler crafting post? There were normal amounts of spaces in those instructions to make it visually appealing. And today I login and there are no breaks there and sixtybillion breaks have snuck into the Link Love post to make the paragraphs half a page apart.

Is anyone else having these problems with Blogger? Am I just a little off my rocker? A lot?

PS I used the word aptly in two different posts yesterday. ahaha.
(I find that funny, okay? Put it under the 'rocker' category)

Road Rash

DD 'got in a car accident', as a friend aptly phrased it. Definitely the worst Coupe Car incident I've ever seen. Actually combed some skin out of her hair. *wince* Insult to injury, of course, it's been raining a lot lately and the back compartment of the Coupe was full of icy rainwater, so when the car tipped she was doused. She's taking it like a trooper, though! And thanks to the magic of polysporin, two days later it's already much smaller. (Yes, ouch, that is the picture of the 'much smaller' injury) I was hoping to get a family photo done soon, but I think I'll have to wait for this to heal a bit. She is such a bruiser lately! Half dozen scrapes and bumps and bruises in the last few days ALONE, this is just the worst of the lot. If she doesn't figure out this whole 'gravity' thing soon, somebody is going to call Child&Family Services on me or something!

Link Love

Is there a word like bromance for girls? Except bromance, I believe, is a mutual thing. I think I'll use the term 'heterosexual and completely platonic crush'.

I have a 'heterosexual and completely platonic crush' (ok, bromance is way cooler) on Chris of Just a Girl

Aside from the fact that I seem to gravitate towards people with the nickname Chris (my husband... my maid of honour...) and the fact that I'm going to go live in her house somewhere like a little hobo because it's super gorgeous, I totally dig her sense of humour. And totally empathize with her issues with her dog, aptly nicknamed Nemesis. My own nemesis, Disrespectful Cat, has actually moved on to greener pastures. By greener I mean 'not mine' and by pastures I mean 'that'll learn ya to poop on my cork flooring'. With my luck, though, Disrespectful Cat is off to go be coddled like a king for the rest of his life in his new cork-free home.

ANYWAYS. Tangent. I have a touch of the ADD, as you may have noticed by now. (and by touch I mean 'look, Ma, I'm off my Ritalin!' which, by the way, I have been since grade 7, as my parents were gracious enough to let it be my choice. "What?! Her ADD jokes are jokes at herself and not making fun of people who have ADD?!" Yes, yes they are.)

So you should totally go over to Just A Girl and laugh, as well as drool at her home and her awesome taste. I know I will. Did. Am. (Still up in the other tab as I go stalkerishly through her archives giggling to myself.)

What a Lovely Weekend

There was actually some sun this weekend! Aside from my failure of a garage sale, we played with some sidewalk chalk... (i may have been slighly more into this than DD)

We crocheted, working on a blankie for a new friend we will meet after she comes out of NICU. (Well, one of us crocheted. The other one of us looked way cuter trying.)

And... we did crafts with DD's Little Friend! DD and Little Friend are both around two, so crafting obviously has some limitations. But the sense of pride when creating something is still very much there even if they are just picking the colours.

Funny Bunny Bracelets - Crafts for Toddlers

Requires : 4x6 foam sheets, marker, feathers, ribbons (all found at Dollarama), scissors, hot glue gun.

Let the toddlers pick out the colour of thier foam sheet, as well as two feathers and a ribbon. (if you have a few options for ribbon available of course) Nothing needs to match, and most likely won't. That's the fun of it!

(insert opportunity to learn colours here)

Fold the foam sheets in half and cut out the approximate shape of a bunny head. Circle-ish, oval-ish, whatever. They won't critisize. You should end up with a front and a back that are joined. Like an 8 shape, when unfolded.

Doodle funny faces on the designated 'front' while the toddlers admire the feathers. With your hot glue gun you will now glue your feathers, your ribbon (one long piece), and the two sides of your bunny head all together in one fell swoop.

Tie your funny-bunny-bracelet onto the chubby little wrist (thiers, not yours) and procede with the Funny Bunny Dance!

If anyone else has fun ideas for crafts to do with two year old girls (aside from the obvious paper + crayons/stickers) I'd love to hear them!

The Perfect Toddler Bookshelf

I love Martha Stewart.com's great idea to use a premade plate rack as a child's bookshelf. DD would be able to see all the books we had out on display (we have far, far too many books. But there is no such thing, so we must have the perfect amount.) and wouldn't have to yoink them all off the shelves to figure out which book she wanted. Now I just need to find a plate rack somewhere!

Speaking of things I need to find... I have been doing some replanting. I have inherited some sad looking plants in some sadlooking pots that used to belong to my DH's Oma. I'm trying to bring them back to life instead of just abandoning them, so don't make fun, they're sad enough already.

Two of the pots, though, I am absolutely in love with - these little white ceramic ones. Too cute. I think I shall start hunting and collecting white ceramic pots. Or just invest in some glossy white spraypaint, ohoho...

And yes, I know, you are absolutely in love with how I am using a mini screwdriver and a plastic knife to hold that poor plant up until it takes root properly in this pot. Tres chique!

(the adorable tin planter-thingy that says Family on it is from Michaels, a steal for around $15!)

A Lesson In Birds

Some things just turn out so much cooler than I could possibly plan for. This little guy hit our window this morning and knocked the sense out of himself for a little while, just long enough to show little DD (sporting freshly-pulled-out-braids) what birdies look like up close. She was fascinated and very gentle for a nearly-two-year-old. Then, when he recovered his senses enough to chirp a bit and fly over to my counter, we brought him to the front door, I put him on DD's hand, and he flew into our tree to be observed from the front window for a few minutes more.

Perfect.

(sigh... i had a nice home-done french manicure on friday... but I used cheapo nail polish and it's all gone. And I don't have super wrinkly arms, my hand was just twisted at a wierd angle. LOL)

Soft Pretzels

Kara's Kitchen Creations Soft Pretzels
um, wow. Okay, I have never had the mystical creation known as 'soft pretzel' before. I shall never eat 'hard pretzel' again. (okay, admittedly, I was not a huge 'hard pretzel' fan to begin with.) These were really super quick and easy to make. No, seriously. The first one was like 'uhhhh why am i doooooing thissssssss' (imagine that whiny voice your kids make, but apply it to a grown woman)... but then I figured out that as long as I kept my work surface completely clear of any hint of flour or anything of the sort and kept my hands slightly damp, just enough for my skin to stick to the dough a bit... easy peasy quick. nomnomnom. My coatings were kosher salt and sesame seeds, b/c it seemed appropriate.


Okay, I cannot belive I published this post without the best part. I need bedtime.
My DH loved these to pieces. Wanted more and more and nearly spoiled his appetite. Then he fell asleep on the couch while I made supper and DD froliced around trying to make mommy do the crazy-mad-screamy-lady thing that mommy does when mommy is trying to make supper and DD is trying to make mommy certifiable. (You know what I'm talking about.)
So the pretzels are still on the table, a big plateful. The one pictured, actually. Suddenly I notice DD running away from the table, a few pretzels missing, and one pretzel clutched in that chubby little palm. Well, I chased her down (I have an open concept home. This was not much of a chase scene.) and retrieved the pretzel. Then I turned to tell hubby, who was napping, what she had done. Lo and behold, there are the other pretzels! In a nice little pile right in front of daddy's face! What a nice girl, trying to share her spoils. And later the last missing pretzel was found in her Little Big Girl purse.
yes, she loves shoes AND carbs. My baby. insert heartbubbles here.

Holiday Monday

Today I did all sorts of nothing. What is a holiday monday to a stay at home mom of a toddler, after all, but a day with an extra body around? Today was just a bit more of the normal, but for an extra day of snuggling in bed followed by a hearty round of Buttermilk Pancakes. Tomorrow I am back in the watch-what-i-eat-and-excercise-daily saddle, I swear.

Just a quick handy (handy... hahaha) tip for y'all today... If you're doing housework of the 'hot water' variety, instead of using bare hands and drying your hands out, give yourself a bit of a treat instead. SLATHER on the HEAVIEST hand cream you can find and then slip your hands into some rubber gloves. Then proceed with the sticking of the hands into the hot water. When you're done, instead of parched digits, you'll have lucious soft hands instead. Delish.

I was reading backlogs of I think it was The Nester today (while folding laundry and ironing the cat and all sorts of productive things, i swear it) and she had a post where she mentioned something about shortcuts and doing things wrong but still doing them and stuff like that. I am so 100% and unabashedly "guilty", and I totally believe that it's best to cut corners sometimes because sparkly superhumanly fast people don't exist and if they did I'd marry one so he could clean my house.

This is NOT a confession, because I have declared this from the mountaintops at other places many times over.

I DO NOT SORT SOCKS. EVER.

Actually that's slightly exaggerated. I sort DD's socks into little pairs, but how hard is it to put the purple kitty socks together, or the pink spotty ones? And then my own socks are all identical, I sort those.

But DH owns about 60 million socks, and I just STUFF THEM IN A DRAWER. He can match them as he pleases. He can just be grateful that I touch his socks in the first place, as far as I'm concerned. lol. He has his own big gigantic drawer full of socks that I just dump straight from the clean laundry basket into the drawer.

I also only handwash dishes something like once a month. If it can't handle the dishwasher, it's not tough enough to make it around here. Except my espresso carafe. That I handwash.

Yet I am this anal-retentive psycho when it comes to my laundry (minus the socks.) Go figure.

And the books on DH's bookshelf must be all standing upright. No lying down on the job, gents.

What do you shortcut on? And what are you psychotic about? Come on, we all have something.

Just because I can't post without adding a picture... this is what I look like when I'm blogging or reading everyone else's blogs. hahaha. Oh, hey, I think I might have a bit of a tanline going on there. When was I near sunlight? It's ridiculous out here. Actually, I think I saw a bit of sun today, but I was too busy hiding from the cold and the wind to scope it out.

i love me a latte

Okay, so I saw this video on... umm, Craft or something? I'm not sure. Anywhoo, I'm not exactly a latte addict but I like them, plus latte IS better for you than just coffee like how I drink it. So when I was out and about yesterday, I popped into Stokes and picked up a frother and an espresso pot thingy (with whimsical cow print) for just under $20. Nice.

I have now decided I am a wee bit addicted. This is actually super easy - not entirely quick but not ridiculously slow either- quicker than driving down and paying ridiculous amounts of money for a latte, that's for sure!

Happy Bday, DH!

Happy Birthday, DH! aka Mr. Lorchick! hahaha. I know what your favourite present ever ever ever was... our little DD!

There are many faces to DH. Most of them are pretty happy faces!

He can have a serious side, too. And there's nothing he wouldn't do for his little DD.

And she feels the same way, even going out of her way to try and make him pretty when he's sleeping. hahaha. (with mommy's fav scarf, no less)

However, he can be plenty pretty all on his own. HAHAHAHAHA! (rofl) If I don't ever blog again it is because he strangled me for posting this picture on my blog. But when I was looking through my files for some fav pics of him I just couldn't resist!

Seriously, though, happy 24th birthday, hunny! (yes, 24... and I'm younger still. By one year. Yes, I said my age! I think I'm getting over it - if I want to act 55 or 15 alternately at the age of 23, I will do it proudly, i think! Okay, wait, I just remembered I'm not 23, I'm 22. And a half. Whatever. I am a little embarrassed that I forget my age already, but no shame for me today, after posting that fairywings picture of him.)

(that's his gnarly bare foot sticking out, for the record. LOL)

I sure am not where I would have pictured myself five years ago. (grad 04, baby!) Actually, five years ago we had been dating for one month. Holy cow... time has flown! Anyways, I was going to be the single, successful entrepeneur. I also was not expected to be able to keep plants or relationships alive, never mind a small child and grown man. However, said grown man happened to be even more stubborn than I am, and everything changed. And I couldn't be more grateful!

So here's to the man who turned everything upside down, and the view is actually pretty good from here! Happy Birthday, Babe! (You may have caught *me*, but I think my girls and I did a pretty good job of holding onto you, hm? haha)

And one more bonus picture, illustrating rather clearly why I fell in love with him:

Yup. That's a Canada flag. In his pants. Because it was Canada Day, that's why.

Loose Teeth Vintage Inspired Sundress with Petticoat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Loose Teeth Vintage Inspired Sundress with Petticoat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

OK, I love Grosgrain's kazillion giveaways but I don't actually put myself in the running for most of them, just admire them from afar because I am quite outside the size range... lol. But she's got a guest giveaway for an ADORABLE custom-fitted dress and I am just DROOLING over it.

Go check it out and put yourself in the running! Wait... no... go check it out and DONT put yourself in the running. MINE! *LOL*

Mother's Day

Here's a shot from back in the beginning of this whole 'mother' thing... That's DH and DD napping together on the day she came home from the hospital. Aww. So tiny. Amazing what a difference such a tiny little person can cause in your life. There have been ups and downs, but at the end of the day, I wouldn't change a single thing in my life, if you gave me the chance, for fear that that little tweak would change my path and I wouldn't be blessed with that little munchkin.

This was my mother's day gift! No, it's not what you think. That is a dresser I picked up for $30 at an MCC. I had started sanding it (last summer, shame shame shame) but it needed a lot of sanding. I put in a bunch of hours but when it got cold it wound up being shoved to the back of the garage. Well, I've been talking about it since it started to warm up (it being ridiculous here, though, yesterday morning it snowed, so i still am excused for this year thus far. LOL.) Anyways, for mothers day, my hubby finished sanding it and primed it for me. A blank canvas?! BEST GIFT EVER! Plus actual effort and manhours instead of just throwing some money on something? I love this man.


This is my DD's gift for my mom. :D I picked up this little wood butterfly at Michaels with her and she coloured it and put stickers on it. Then I wrote on it, applied fixative liberally, and put a magnet on the back. It is currently sitting magneted on MY gift for my mom...


The other day on Craftzine.com, I saw this tutorial for a moisturizing lemon hand scrub. I decided it was a perfect gift for my mom - She can't use any products with fragrance and some of the products she CAN use are sort of lacking in the 'awesome' factor.

And the icing on the cake... in MY opinion... This scrub recipe calls for the zest of a large lemon. So here I have this naked large lemon sitting there... what do I do with it? Here's a recipe from my church recipe book for yummy lemon bars, when I squeezed that lemon I found the juice was the exact right amount! If you have a little more or a little less it's not a big deal. So these recipes go nicely hand-in-hand, almost nothing wasted! (anyone have a recipe for squeezed-out, zestless lemons?)

Lemon Squares

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup room temperature butter/margarine
4 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix together 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup icing sugar, then cut in 1 cup of room temperature butter or margarine. Press into a 9x13 pan and bake at 350F until lightly browned (around ten minutes) No need to cool in between steps, but don't bother to start the next part of this recipe until you pull the bottom layer out of the oven.

Put 2 cups of sugar, 4 eggs, and the lemon's juice (about 1/3 cup) into a blender (or if you are like me and trash all your blenders, a bowl and your hand mixer more than suffice) blending until thick and smooth (medium speed.)
Sift 1/4 cup flour and 1/2 tsp baking power into the mix, blend to combine. Pour over crust and bake at 350F for 25 minutes. It should be starting to look lightly browned - if it's still very white give it a few more minutes or it will be very gooey and hard to slice nicely.

These are very refreshing and totally yum.

Want to hear some more mother's day stories? Check out Mother's Day Madness over at Lazy Moms!

Hurley Family Adoption

I was randomly clicking 'next' on the little blogger bar on the top of the blogger.com pages and I stumbled upon this family's blog. Thier story moved me to tears and I wanted to try and send as many of you as possible over there to go and help. They are trying to raise funds to make up the difference needed to adopt little Wes, and they need to raise over $8,000.

Quoted directly from thier blog, Hurley Family Adoption:

Dear Friends, We got a call from our adoption agency on Monday before Easter, that literally dropped us to our knees. Wes is in a special program, where donors (probably from the corporate world) pay for a portion of the adoption for special needs kids. The agency told us that, due to the economy, a major donor had pulled their support. For us, this translates to a deficit of $8,430.00. We trust in God’s economic system, not the worlds. There are over 100 children affected by this change in funding. Please join us in prayer on behalf of these precious children that each family will somehow still be able to bring their child home, and none of this group will be left behind to languish in an orphanage.

The way the special needs system in China works, the children are “listed” by their orphanage as being eligible for adoption. The files of the children are listed with agencies for about 6 months, if no family is found, the file is returned. After the file is returned to China, in most cases, that child NEVER gets listed again. In other words; this is their one and only shot to no longer be one of 147,000,000 orphans in the world. Miraculously, Wes’s file has been in the US for 1 ½ years—we know God kept him on the list until we found him. Children who‘s special needs do not allow them to attend school, literally never leave the walls of the orphanage until they are 14 years old, at which time, it is very common for them to be kicked out into the street. If they are lucky, they can be trained to help take care of other children at the orphanage, and are able to stay on as a worker.

God has called us to adopt, it is our mission field at this point in our lives. We have never adopted just because we want more kids. Of course we get all the fun and joy that comes with kids, but that is not what it’s about for us. We desire to walk in obedience to God, not only showing these precious children the love of a family, and hope for their future, but MOST importantly, a chance to know Jesus Christ as their savior. We know we serve a God who can do exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ever ask or imagine, please join us in asking Him for a way to save these kids. We wait in great anticipation to see what God will do, because we know He is in the miracle working business, He moves mountains.Please pray that we will have wisdom and discernment on what endeavors might help provide the needed funds for Wes's adoption, and glorify Him.

Learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:17

They do have the option to directly donate up on thier blog, but they are also trying to raise funds by selling greeting cards featuring the lovely artwork done by thier daughter Kristen (as shown above), as well as many other things like hand-smocked dresses and customized clothing, including new and gently-used items. Take some time to wander over there, whether to buy, to donate, or just to offer support in whatever way you can!

http://5hurleykids.blogspot.com/

(and if you're wondering why the first few posts say december, it's december *09* to keep those important posts at the top!)

Ewww + Linkies

Ok, so this morning I am a sicky ew gross mess. Sniffly and weepy and yuck. I totally gross myself out when I am sick, no lie. And then I drink coffee like I think it's the cure, so I'm wide awake and disgusting instead of in a happily zoned-out kind of place like a decent sick person should be. It's depraved.

So since I don't see me doing anything of value myself over the next few days, I'll point you in some other directions!




KatyDid's Flower Collar Tutorial Very chic, I could totally see myself making a bunch of those flowers while watching TV and stitching them onto the collar of a little dress or something for DD. Not in quite the bib way, a bit different. Hopefully I actually do it and can illustrate what I mean. hahahaha. right. Me, do something. It's been a while. D:




Ottobre Design Blog's Pink Linen Dress Modification Um, why did I not know about Ottobre Design Blog until I saw it on thier site yesterday? It's not very old, but it basically shows some of the things from in the mag, plus some ideas on modifying the patterns that they had after the mag was sent out. I think I like the knit fabric original that thier modification is based off of... I also think if you used a knit fabric it'd be really easy to fudge this dress with no pattern whatsoever. It's on my to-do list, so we'll see how the fudging goes. If it goes poorly, I can just go cry in a corner and eat fudge, sooo... win-win.




CocoKnits Pleated Ballet Flats (knitting) ($6) Truth: I can knit, and quickly, but I have only knit one project in the last YEAR, which is Gigi and is not finished yet b/c I put the buttons on inside out and got really mad when I finished and realized that and hid it. Which is a tiny thing and takes like half an hour to fix, so maybe I will do that today. But you totally sympathize, right? Sometimes even though you know something is only a tiny problem you are so mad you don't fix it? Maybe I'm just nuts and it's just me. Anyways, these ballet flats are truly adorable. So maybe instead of picking up the crochet hook next time I need a yarn fix, I'll pull this out of my favs list (it's been in there for a while now!) and whip these beauties up.


I think these three projects are currently topping my mental to-do list right now, but that list is totally ADD-generated and switches all the time - it's highly possible that I wind up doing none of these. But I love them anways.

What's on your "I-swear-I-will-mostlikely-probably-hopefully-maybe-do-these" list...??

Twilight

I feel like I've been doing a lot of 'confessions' lately, and for some reason it feels like a confession that I just realized I am sort of a Twilighter. I'm almost embarassed about it, I have sort of mixed feelings I think. Here's the deal... I watched the movie and really enjoyed it. My absolute favourite scene was the baseball scene, which I think is kind of hilarious, but I swear it replays in my head at random times. It was a well executed, dynamic, visually appealing scene; it could have been twice as long and I would have been thrilled. Let's pause a moment to state that I don't like baseball, at all. No appeal whatsoever. But I just adored this scene. I think it was just the way it was done - i would totally watch baseball if the players flipped thier bats around in showoffish fashions and the pitchers looked like they were doing baseball ballet. It just held so much visual appeal to me.
After I watched the movie, about a month ago I guess, I decided to read the book, and also that I would buy the movie (which I did, yesterday. I'll also add that the last movie I bought was Anchorman, and it was actually bought for me, so the last movie I bought was a workout video approximatly five years ago. I don't normally watch movies - or read books! - more than one time.)
Eventually I casually got around to reading the book, and I finished it in a few hours. This might sound like a feat to some people, but that's just how I read - each book in the series took me around the same amount of time. I enjoyed it so much that I read it again the next day.

Another pause, and I'll say that I have read lots of bad reviews and heckling on the series. I am not going to stand here and say that Stephanie Meyer is the best author ever, nor that she is the worst. For me, personally, and obviously for many others too, I was captivated and interested. From the back-and-forth things online and offline, I feel guilty about this for some reason. I don't know if I should or not, but I do. I think I'm supposed to be too serious, too adult, I don't know. I totally realize that there are cougars stalking Robert Pattison all over the world right now, so age can be irrelevant, but I think it might be more that I feel like I am just not supposed to enjoy Twilight. But I do! Chalk it up to my ADD maybe, or the fact that I was a lot like Bella, attitude-wise, in highschool - which i am sure half the girls in the world can say in some form or another. I have always been a person who enjoys being alone, and who enjoys her peers but does not necessarily really rely on or need them all the time. (I go crazy if I do not have several hours of 'alone time' every day, which is kind of a feat when you're a mom.)

This is going way longer than I meant it to. haha.

Okay, summarize it. There were many things in the books that I liked, and many that I liked less. When I reread the last book I skipped the middle part. I also disliked New Moon. I think I was only interested in the Bella-Edward parts of the series. Perhaps this can be analyzed and my psyche can be delved into. I don't care. Maybe I just loved it because Edward is sparkly and I have ADD and sparkly things appeal to me. Hahahahaha.

Moving On. Robert Pattinson. I think he's a good actor. I don't know yet if he's great. I thought he sounded almost swedish sometimes while he played Edward. lol. I think he could have tried a little less hard to hide his english accent, Bella does mention that sometimes he sounds like he's from another time, the english accent thing wouldn't have hurt that at all.

I wound up watching all the extended features. I felt overwhelmed by the overwhelming fans at the interviews and stuff. I laughed whenever Robert Pattinson was onscreen. I even learned his name, which I do not always bother to do. I enjoy movies, but I don't often really care, beyond that.

I was surfing the net and wound up watching one of his interviews on youtube. Then another. Then another, and another. Not because I was dazzled by his antigravitational hair, but because I wound up laughing out loud for every one. Or at least smirking broadly.
I think I might actually be more a Robert Pattinson fan than a twilight fan. Who knows. I am interested to see him go on to do more parts and see if he can do more than just brood, as an actor. I would love to see him in a comedy, to be honest - I have to laugh at all his interviews, I wonder how he'd do in a comedy flick. At the end of the day though, I have to say, I think he appeals to me because he's the kind of person I love being friends with. I actually have a friend or two with the same kind of attitude, and I love people like that, who don't take themselves too seriously and are easy to laugh with. I'm not going to be lining up anywhere to scream at him anytime soon. I think all that is absolutely ridiculous.
I'd also like to put it out there that I'm not some twilightcougar either - I never bring up my age, because sometimes I am embarrassed by how young I am, and I am not sure if that's because I act old for my age and embarassed by how old I'm mistaken for, or if I am "old for my age" and want to be taken seriously so I'm embarrassed by my age. But to be completely honest, I think he might be older than me, either that or the same age. It's very close, regardless. Also, I am not a screeching fangirl who would ever throw myself on him or even show up at an event because he would be there. But I do think I would enjoy hanging out with him, because, as I said, from watching his interviews, I think I would spend most of the time laughing, and I love people like that.

So. I don't know how to summarize that post. I guess... I like Twilight, I like Robert Pattinson, I am more than a little amused with myself by those things. I joked to my husband that I feel like I'm on the verge of putting up posters on my wall. He enjoyed the movie and will probably be "Team Jacob" while I am "Team Edward", by the way, but aside from that he says he wouldn't have bought the movie, himself. It can also be noted that he, too, is amused by the fact that I went and bought all the books - I do not buy reading books. (I buy craft books. I borrow reading books, read them once, and give them back within the week.)

At the end of the day, I don't know what my actual opinion is on Twilight. It's like an addiction - I'm not going to brag about it, but I'm willing to admit it, and I enjoy it, but feel guilty about it. lol.